


Pointes

by PsychicAbsol



Series: Points! [6]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, Bullying, Concerts, F/F, F/M, First Kiss, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Lesbian Character, Mild Language, Music, Singing, Song Lyrics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 13:30:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4748213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PsychicAbsol/pseuds/PsychicAbsol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It seemed as if all through her life, it would remain impossible for Lexie Toxic-Winter to ever rebell against her mothers. With one of them being a close to  omnipotent, slightly weird in herself psychic and the other an ex-drug addicted rockstar, there was not much she could mess up that would honestly upset them.<br/>And yet, at one point, she managed to destabilise family life…”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pointes

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Another piece of the “Point” universe and the story of how Lexie unwillingly and involuntarily almost repeated history…and how she changed it.  
> Song lyrics are of "I really like you" by Carly Rae Jepsen.

Being who she was, there was not much that Lexie was honestly afraid of. Normal kids, small ones, were afraid of the the dark, of the bogeyman, of Darkai, or of ghosts. Given that, from the moment she had a basic understanding of her powers onwards and given that her mum had a special connection to a certain ghost, she could only roll her eyes at these primal fears. The things she was afraid of, and with every reason to be so, were either more tangible or dangerous- such as the rogue Facet of her mother Sabrina that had decided to wiggle its way into her own psyche. Or they had a more social component, such as the fact that by being who she was, Lexie was by default different from all the other kids at her school. 

That in itself would not have bothered her much. Sure, she was a powerful psychic even before puberty, sure, she had the unique characteristic of lacking a biological father. But these were things that were not visible at first glance, and while their factual existence would make it harder for her sooner or later to fit in, they did not mark her as an outcast from the very beginning. 

Still, she had her fair share of experience being frowned upon both by teachers, who did not know where to file her under given her heritage, and other students who, by the end of elementary school, had lost all innocence and lack of prejudices and took every straw of a chance at mockery they could get. She supposed, in a way, she was the perfect target, but she ceased to be one once her fellow pupils realized that not only was she smarter than many of them in a way, but she also managed to let most comments roll off her. Not that it was so easy being a target, of course not. Some snide comments still hurt her, especially if they aimed at her lack of a father and the logical conclusion many drew from that, failing to realize that her mum had tricks up her sleeve they couldn’t even dream of. It also helped that by her tenth birthday, she received her most cherished present from her mom. 

The official party had long since taken place, and Lexie was already busy taming her carpet of teal-colored hair and admiring herself in the mirror her friend Marisa had given her. It was an unusual present, but since she had not given her friends precise wishes to work with, she was okay with whatever she got. Esteban had been the more creative one, giving her a dress up doll. She was not a huge doll fan the reason that no one in her family was, but she still loved his present, as it was a _rockstar_ doll after all, with fancy, bushy hair and glitter skulls printed onto its skirt. She was fairly sure her mom had gotten a good chuckle out of it when her mum had compared it to Roxie herself in her younger days behind Lexie’s back. 

It was then, in the evening, when the guests had already left and most of the cake was already safely hidden in the refrigerator (at least for a few hours, Arceus knew that her mothers would have devoured it by morning), that she heard someone knocking on her door. In general, there was no use in knocking, for she knew whenever someone wanted to enter, being psychic and all, but for the sake of the only non-psychic in the family, she kept this custom. 

Knocking before entering was also the only way she had so far managed to avoid walking in on her mothers, and Arceus, was she glad for the innocence of her eyes being conserved for the time being, while her ears had heard sounds no one below the age of sixteen should have heard. 

“Yes?” She asked, still standing on a plastic stool and combing her hair, fighting off the ridiculous skyscraper like pigtails her mom had decorated her scalp with. She hoped she could plead with her mum to hang the mirror a bit lower, so that she, blessed with her mom’s lack of height, would be able to reach it without artificial help or her psychic abilities. Though, given her mum’s attire, that would likely end in another levitation lesson… 

“‘ello, baby girl….” Lexie jumped from her stool and circled around her mom, fully aware of the fact that there was something hidden behind her back, which she kept juggling forward in order to hide it from Lexie’s curios eyes. She was accustomed to Sabrina not bothering much with presents- her mum simply lacked the creativity to come up with something Lexie had no explicitly asked for, and the little girl saw no need to change anything about it as long as she got a good deal out of it by getting whatever she asked for directly. Her mom, on the other side, was almost frighteningly insistent on surprising her, even if it was a long-lost game by grace of her mind reading powers. 

Yet, sometimes, her mothers worked together to hide something from her, and these were the moments where Lexie started to act like any other ten-year old, and became obnoxiously curios about her presents. 

“Hold it, hold it…” Roxie tried to calm the excited child down, but it was not a serious try. She smiled. “Tis is somefing me an’ your mum came up wiv.” Roxie winked. She had long since noticed that, if such a thing was possible, Lexie had indeed inherited her own affection for music. Then again, the girl was the impossible creation of Mother Nature being cheated out of the contribution of a male individual’s sperm, so who was to say hoe inheritance worked in Lexie’s case? She used every small chance she had to sing together with her mom, and whenever the radio in the living room area was on, it was likely that it was Lexie who had turned it on, reclining back into the rocking chair and just relaxing for several hours straight. Yet, Roxie had also been attentive enough to notice that there was a bright difference between them, regarding the preferred style of music. Lexie curiously always turned on older music channels, preferred to watch classical concerts on TV and in general hid whenever her mom turned on the basses so loudly the windows started vibrating. She had shared this knowledge with Sabrina, who then had proposed a quite unusual idea. 

“Yes, I think she should get an instrument.” Roxie had not even uttered that notion out loud, but she was not surprised at her partner confirming the idea. Roxie may not have said it out loud, but ever since the moment Lexie had been born- or, given that Roxie had not been present, rather the moment she had become aware of her impending parenthood, it had been her secret wish, her deepest wish, actually, to see her girl making music as well. It seemed to be a fairly egoistical wish, all things considered, but with the way Lexie turned out, it did not feel so forced anymore. 

Roxie did not even get the chance to suggest what she had on her mind- bass guitar, obviously, before Sabrina interrupted her. “What do you think about a violin?” 

Sabrina had, as always, been right, as Lexie’s for once uncontrolled, excited squealing told her mom. She could hardly be stopped as she unpacked the case, admiring the shining wood underneath with wide, coral blue eyes. Later that night, she could hardly be stopped practicing, but both of her mothers insisted that she at least got some sleep as she had to go to school the next morning again. 

Scene Change

Logic regarded the growth of Lyra with suspicious, warning eyes. “Don’t think you will lead us astray.” The leading Facet said, eyes closed and head high. She didn’t feel like defining what the intended way was, for she didn’t have any high regards for the pale, fairy-like Facet. Lyra had always been there, seated deep in Lexie’s heart ever since her birth, and maybe even before, but even as she had grown stronger over the years, she had never endangered Logic’s position.

But now, the calm Facet felt an unknown irritation at the new hobby Lexie took up like a tornado took up loose leaves.

Lyra smiled a warm, greeting smile. “Don’t be hostile. I think if we cooperate, it will lead us to great things.”

Love, another core Facet that had existed since day one, and even before, nodded, pulling Lyra aside and forcing her and Logic into a deep hug.

Scene Change

That had been two years ago. Two years of constant practice, mostly alone. It wasn’t as if her mothers couldn’t afford lessons, of course not. But Lexie preferred to practice at home, with only her music adapted mom as her teacher.

Sometimes, it wasn’t tuition as much as screaming and re-enacting popular titles or songs her mother had played during her own time as a band member, but evidently, this proved to be a well enough education altogether as she got approached by the directorate of the music club of her school. Lexie figured that all the times she had brought her violin to school and played within the breaks must have made an impression, in the end. Both on the teachers, and the very few cheeky boys who had tried to rip the instrument out of her hands and got literally burned for their crimes later. Not that anything could be traced back to Lexie. An accident with a malfunctioning Bunsen burner in chemistry was what it was, an accident, and most certainly not of supernatural origins.

Given all of that, Lexie should not have been afraid when she stood in front of the double doors leading to the school’s stage room, double functioning as host room both for the music and the theatre club which shared cleaning duties and schedule. But she supposed that with every action in life that proposed a greater change, nervosity came, whenever it was wanted or not.

She opened the door, satchel safe on her back and violin case under her right arm. She was a bit early, rehearsal had not yet started, but the members of the club were slowly arriving anyway, chit-chatting away with each other. There weren’t many faces she knew, most kids were older than her, anyways, or from other year groups. She did recognise the teacher that had invited her, though, and decided to approach her, first.

“And don’t forget, the beg-, oh, good afternoon, Lexie. It’s nice to see you.”

Lexie dropped a curtsey, a quirk she had evolved only recently, but found fitting for a future violinist.

The teacher smiled brightly at her, turning around and glancing at the stage. “Well, now that you’re here, don’t you want to show us your play?”

“Of course.” Nothing she’d like to do better than that!

Immediately, she took the stage- or rather, she would have taken, weren’t it for the other girl still standing there with the guitar that was effectively too big for her yet, even though she seemed to have an unnatural control over it already. Taking barely one short glance at Lexie, the blonde girl sneered and, as if to provoke her, continued drawing her fingers over the strings. “A violin…” She muttered under her breath. “Such a pussy thing…”

Lexie glared back at her, grey eyes fighting bright blue eyes for dominance. “Got anything to say to me personally?” She asked, head high.

If anything, she only got a short snort of an answer, before she was finally allowed to take stage. And although she lost herself in the music, as she often did whenever she played, she couldn’t quite erase the nagging sensation that the guitarist continued to watch her from afar, snickering and giggling to herself. And since she knew herself to be psychic, she knew that this feeling was likely justified. She had the feeling that it influenced her play negatively a bit, in the end, but given that she was still accepted without objection into the club, she must have been effectively good enough.

She did have to watch her step when she went off the stage, though. Rare were the cases where someone tried to trip her up and lived, but for the sake of the club, she left the girl untouched. No need to make enemies early.

In fact, it barely took them another day to become acquainted to each other in a way too close for comfort in their eyes. Lexie had been right when her gut feeling had told her that she had not seen the blonde girl ever before, despite the fact that she looked to be about her age. The very next morning, first lesson got interrupted by the class teacher in order to introduce a new student to the class.

“This is Tamara Corkney. She moved to Saffron a week ago and will be joining the A class from now on.” Lexie and most of the rest of the C class sighed a bit. Their head teacher was of the overly avid kind, that had not realized yet that children could be devils in disguise, and that not everyone shared his enthusiasm for social activities.In her mind it did not make much sense to introduce them to a kid that was joinign another class of their year. “Why don’t you tell us something about yourself?”

The girl, Tamara, gave off the tiniest sigh and turned to class, long, tousled hair falling onto her pink shirt. “I’m Tamara, I’m thirteen years old, my birthday is June twenty-sixth, I live together with my mother and my younger brother in Everett Street, Cross quarter.”

Lexie heard a few kids whisper among themselves, likely because Cross quarter was an area you _did not_ cross unless you had a very good reason to, but she herself was more put off by the fact that this girl’s birthday was only one day before her own.

Seemingly at a loss at what else to say, Tamara hesitated for a moment. “And I play the guitar, I guess.”

Their teacher said something to the likes of thanking Tamara for her introduction, but Lexie did not listen anymore. Of course she would say she played the guitar.

Scene Change

There had been a time in Lexie’s life when she had not known about Facets. Or at least not been told the correct term. She had not known what the ghost-like copies of her that lurked, frisked or simply hid in the mirrors were. She just knew them to creep up whenever she looked at the blank surface, behind or sometimes even before her corporal self, impeding her when she tried to comb her hair, or wash her face. Only when they had started talking to her had she been startled, and ran to her mum for advice, since she was always the one all-knowing about the supernatural.

She had been quite surprised to hear Lexie being able to interact with her Facets in such an easy and unusual way, but she had also advised her to be wary. Facets were not always of the amicable kind. In fact, she had told Lexie that some were the proper opposite, and destructive in horrid ways.

Sabrina had not been advised enough in parenthood laws to realize that she had driven her daughter away from mirrors in fear for quite a while, Lexie going even as far as to put blankets and towels over them.

It had only been when Lyra, her favourite Facet, had arrived on the scene that Lexie had dared to talk to her mirror-selfs- as she had labeled them earlier, again. Lyra was always the one that encouraged her to play, while Logic was rather the bored, lame one, Lexie found. Logic was nice to talk to when you needed help with your math homework, but not when you had trouble with your friends.

Lambency was a silent Facet. Lexie was even a bit intimidated by her. Despite having her body, the body of a pre-teen, she emitted an aura of power that just seemed out of this world. In this regard, Lambency reminded her lot of her mother.

There were other Facets as well, of course. Love, for example. Lexie liked Love as well, but sometimes, she was difficult to reason with, since she was way too peaceful. For her, the solution always seemed to hug and play hopscotch, but Lexie did not think this would help her along with Tamara.

 

Scene Change

Lexie’s biggest concern the following weeks would certainly have been the fact that no matter how well she tried, she could not truly ‘arrive’ within the music club, had it not been for more exciting news coming from her mothers.

After what felt to her like an eternity- and in all honesty, it was, since it spanned the period from before her birth until recently, they had been shacked up together without certificate. It was not a matter of legalization, as by now, society had evolved enough to accept their union as official. Truly, Lexie had never questioned why her mothers had never bothered to marry. She was so used to it that she was taken aback when the announcement came one morning after she got back from a sleepover at a friend’s. Nevertheless, she congratulated them, before quickly deciding that she would spend another night out of home in case they decided to celebrate their betrothment their usual way.

Which was pretty much a given.

With this clear change of constellation in mind, now that she would finally be the daughter of two married woman, it was a bit easier to acknowledge that some things in the music club were still in disorder. The most pressing matter, without doubt, was the subliminal differences between Tamara and her that often resulted in one or the other getting loud. The teachers kept it under control. For the moment.

“What is your problem?” Lexie exclaimed, after Tamara had, for the uncounted time, interrupted her play. The other girl displayed a frighteningly great arsenal of tricks up her sleeve to annoy Lexie, and still get away with it unhindered. Sometimes, she just tripped over a cord the right moment and the curtains of the room moved so that Lexie was blinded, sometimes, she knew which floorboard to step on to cause the maximum squeaking, and sometimes, she just plainly found the perfect snarky comment about her choice of instrument or general attire to make Lexie wish she was allowed to make imaginary Beedrils chase her classmate.

Lexie wished Tamara would have answered her question in a way that posed a solution to the overall situation, but the closest she got was a rude slur. “You should know, freak.”

The psychic girl hedged. It was not the first time she had been called a freak. And by now, it had stopped hurting, really.

She supposed she could have read Tamara’s mind. She really could have, and it might have helped her along, really. But she hesitated. Mind reading was nothing you just did to strangers, without their permission. It was a rule only laxly enforced in her household, but Lexie tried to avoid prying into minds she did not know about. Her mum had told her that dangers she, at her age, could not be up to might lurk in them. If anything, Sabotage was proof of that.

Instead, she went home and, grudgingly, decided to ask her mum about advice. She was crucially aware of the fact that neither of her mothers was truly accustomed to average social norms, but if she had to ask for advice, it should at least come from the one who wouldn’t see it as an opportunity to play matchmaker.

__

So, she keeps on picking on me, and I have asked her why, but she will not give me an answer. It is really disruptive, over all.

Lexie curled her arms underneath her on the dining table.

Sabrina, washing the dishes, paused before giving an answer.

Unlike Lexie, she knew who they were dealing with here, and she had a fairly good feeling for the reasons behind Tamara’s behaviour, given that her mother was not uninformed either, but she did not think it would be fair for the kid to have that judgement dangling over her head already.

__

Causing trouble might by a symptom of being upset with something oneself. Have you ever asked yourself if she might have problems causing her to behave so unruly?

Her daugher paused. No, she had not. Causing more problems when one had them en masse already did not seem to be a useful solution in her mind. Still, she would give the matter some more thought.

She would have never guessed that this would end with her in probation…

Scene Change

She did not put her plan into action immediately. Rather, she kept on hanging on the hope that it would sort itself out over time.

It didn’t.

By the time their first year together in the music club was over, it had come to the point where the teacher feared to put them together in one act. They claimed they weren’t actively trying to sabotage each other’s plays, but coincidences kept piling up, and Lexie found herself having to defend herself more and more often, giving that sometimes, the only explanation left for malfunctioning equipment seemed to be her powers. She couldn’t even pledge for full innocence, since she _had_ messed with Tamara’s guitar from time to time, when their rivalry, for that’s what it was by now, went overboard.

The straw that broke the Numel’s back was actually the leg that made her trip one day after a school concert, resulting in her breaking her violin. This devastating loss fresh on her heart, and the culprit within reach, she did not care about the audience that was watching her that day, or the fact that she knew she would get in trouble for her actions. Even she had moments where her fuse was dangerously short.

Tamara was taller than her, by far, but then, who wasn’t? And if her mom’s resilience had taught her anything, it was that height was not crucial when it came to raw brawling. The key factor was experience, and sadly, this was something Lexie lacked.

They somehow ended up entangled in the curtains that were usually used by the theatre group, and somehow, they managed to rip them into pieces, a bone-chilling tearing sound echoing through the room. Lexie’s face had the sheer virtue of being protected by her immense amount of hair when it came to Tamara’s fist, and Tamara herself was protected by sleek, almost professional movement crafted by years in an environment that forced you to slither out of hands quite often. The audience, on the other hand, had no protection to speak off save for the courageous decision of one teacher to intercept the fight at the risk of being hit by a stray psychic attack.

Tamara ended up with a few, negligible scratches on her cheek and forehead, and Lexie with bruises on her throat and chest.

She did have enough strength in her arms to fight her teacher off for a moment. Long enough to pose another question to Tamara, one that would finally provide her with something akin to a suitable answer.

“What is your problem?!” The teal-haired girl shouted.

Tamara might have actually tried to spit at her, or she had to fight with herself to force the words out of her mouth. “My problem? What I am is my problem. No one gives a shit about what you are, freak, but everyone shits on me for what I am. That is my problem.”

Lexie blinked, momentarily confused and taken aback by the honesty that was shining through Tamara’s words, before she was carried away.

Things could have ended there, with the two girls separated and given proper detention, but without the chance to truly talk it all out. Thankfully, the head of the music club had a much better idea.

Lexie found herself guided away into a spare storage room, filled with cabinets, various instruments of the past centuries, cardboard, cables, speakers, and two wooden chairs facing each other. Tamara was sitting on one, arms crossed over each other. She hadn’t changed much from the tight-mouthed thirteen year old she had been when they had first met. Her attire, yes, that had gone through an interesting alteration. She had shaved her hair at the sides, opting for a short mohawk, and she had started wearing cheap, black, fake-leather jackets with buttons, chains and patches all over it. In a way, she painfully reminded Lexie of her mom, or at least her mom from her wilder, younger days.

The door closed behind them. They had not been given an instruction, aside from the order to talk their problem out, seeing as how they obviously had one with each other. Lexie sighed. That was something she clearly was not enlightened about. She _did not have_ any problems with Tamara. It was always the other girl starting the argument.

She crossed her own arms, intend on remaining silent for as long as was considered necessary. If she wasn’t home by seven, her mothers would get worried anyway, and the headmaster would get an unannounced, irritated teleportation visit.

Her plan was swiftly crushed when Tamara herself broke the silence.

“You did not get what I talked about, right?”

Lexie hated to admit it, but Tamara was right. All the way down here, she had mulled over her words, trying to find the secret meaning behind, but had not managed to decipher them. She sighed. “I think you...have a problem with what you are.” She began wringing her hands, but quickly stopped once she became aware of her own movements. “I don’t think I get that. I mean...you’re okay? As long as you’re not sabotaging me…” She quickly added, lips pulled into a thin line.

Tamra snorted. “Figures that you don’t get it. You never bother looking left and right, do you? All you care about is yourself, you little princess, with your fancy home and, clothes, and garden, and pool, and everything.” Tamara paused and while Lexie felt the immediate impulse to defend her style of living, she stopped herself short before she could say something hurtful. After all, it was the plain truth that not everyone could have the same luxurious home she could, and, given the part of Saffron Tamara lived at…

“I’m an outsider. Don’t you see it? They laugh at me. I have nothing I can be proud of. I’m piss-poor, my mother is a shitty musician herself, my father did not even bother honestly fighting for me, my brother is likely only my half-brother, and we live in a house I don’t even have my own room in.” She snorted, spitting out next to Lexie. “Until last month, I did not even have my own bed. How shitty is that, princess, hm?”

Lexie could not answer, for she was, frankly, taken aback by Tamara’s living conditions.

“And now everyone’s making fun of me because I am a punk rocker. They make fun of my hair, my clothes, everything.”

Again, Lexie had to stop herself from thinking out loud that the fake leather vest with its several unfitting patches was something laughable, since she knew how the original was supposed to look like after one glance into her mom’s garderobe.

“My guitar play is the only thing that is really keeping me upwards, you know? There is nothing I look forward to more than practice play.” She leaned back, the chair creaking underneath her. “There was nothing I wanted more than to be the center of the music club. This was what I wanted. And then you came along, you with your unnatural talent, you spoiled freaky brat with your messed up family, living in luxury. And you just messed it up for me.” Tamara stopped, evidently having said enough for her taste.

Lexie sighed. This meant it was her turn to pour her heart out now, wasn’t it? She really did not feel like it, not after being called names again and again, but she could hardly expect sympathy from Tamara if she kept silent, now, did she?

“It’s not easy for me, either.” Now, she could not stop her hands from wrestling with each other. “I am being called names too, you know.” She bit her lip. “They call me freak, just like you did now. They see what I am, and...I think they’re either afraid of me, or the cover it up by laughing at me.” She paused. It was the plain truth. She did not have many friends. There was Marisa, sure, but she was more an acquaintance that loved to play with her toys than a true friend. And there was Esteban and his family, of course. It was debateable if he counted, though, as he was psychic as well, and knew the perils she went through. That, and he did not live in Saffron, making upholding the friendship difficult. Still, if she had to judge, he was her best friend at the moment.

“They know who my mothers are, and, I guess they either don’t believe me when I say I don’t have a father, or they automatically think of me as some monster.” Not that she could not blame them, really, but, having grown up relatively secured and with the idea in mind that having two biological mothers was _normal_ possible, it hurt her to hear these false accusations. “I am just as much of an outcast as you are, but I guess...people are too afraid to openly attack me?” She stopped, meekly, not sure if whatever she had said would truly help bury the hatchet between them.

Tamara stood up, and Lexie would lie if she didn’t feel the slightest bit intimidated by the presence of the taller girl, whose mohawk seemingly added at least ten centimeters overall to her height.

“Then tell me, freak, how can we outcasts be the one we want to be, without everyone else pointing their fingers at us?”

Lexie shouldn’t have been surprised at Tamara knowing how to pick lockets. She really shouldn’t, but nevertheless, she found herself suddenly alone in the storage room, while Tamara had went off wherever she wanted to.

Scene Change

There were some explanations in order once she got home from school, moody and her precious violin broken. Even though she refused to answer the question of the why in detail, she still got promised to get a new instrument- that much was a given since much of her happiness was at stake without it. Still, in that way of readiness her mothers promised her a new instrument their further fuelled her guilt of experiencing living conditions Tamara could only dream of.

Tamara’s question obviously kept bothering poor Lexie for so long that even weeks later, when she went out with her mom to try out the clothes for the wedding, she still couldn’t shake it off her mind. It was so obvious that even Roxie took notice of it.

And while Lexie was sure that the answer provided by her mom would help her own psyche along, she wondered if she same could be said about Tamara’s.

Scene Change

It was once again summer, and during summer break, the music club often gave open-air concerts. Evidently, their speak out that had not really been one must have impressed the director so much that she allowed them to cross ways again. Lexie, who still felt the tension knew better, though and thus, decided to approach Tamara once most songs had been played, and the chance of another fallout causing the whole concert to blow was low.

“Hey, Tamara! I…” She had to pause, as Tamara, who was practising next to a pond, leaning against a tree, refused to listen to her. “I want to talk to you.” She was willing to wait all day long here if it would at least ease their conflict.

Tamara did decide to look up. “About what?”

Lexie found her fingers fiddling with the hem of her dress before she could get them under control. “About what you said in the storage room.”

Tamara raised her eyebrows. “You still remember, freak? Really?”

Lexie gracefully overheard the use of the slur. “Yes, I do. Can I sit down?” Tamara shrugged. The psychic let herself fall into the grass besides her club mate and took a deep breath. “I thought about what you said. About us having trouble being who we really are. And I think...I mean...does it really matter? Their opinions, I mean. Do we really have to give a shit about everyone else’s opinion?” She giggled, happy that her mum was not here to reprimand her for her language. “We will never be able to please anyone, anyway. Given how complex we are…” She paused. She had been on the verge of mentioning Facets to Tamara, but she was sure this was a topic better left for later. “Given how complex we are, we can never expect to be fully understood by anyone else. They will just see what they want to see, not what we really are. And they will make their own assumptions, anyway.” She turned to Tamara. “I thought you had something against me. But I think you were really just sad at being an outcast. That, I can understand. It’s the same for me, really.” She began drawing circles in the sand with her finger, before remembering the analogy her mom had given her. “Right now, we try to fit into the circles like everyone else does. But I think, if we all did that, the circle would become overcrowded. And pretty boring, to be honest.” She tipped the sand outside of it. “So what we do is, that we get outside of it. We explore what else is there. And sometimes, we find out that this is where we truly fit in. Where we feel free. Where we can be whatever we are, whatever that might be. Maybe we don’t even know that ourselves. But that’s not a problem, either. We still have all the time in the world to find out. Right now, you’re a rocker, and a guitarist, and…” She paused. It was a bit hard to admit that, but it was the honest truth, and she could live with herself telling Tamara as much. “You’re pretty good at it. And I’m a psychic and a violinist, and I do not think there’s any reason for us not to get along.”

There was a long pause. Lexie half feared she pushed Tamara’s patience, when the other girl finally answered. “You’re quite the chatterbox.”

She wasn’t, but Lexie did not feel like pressing the point.

“But you have a point, I guess.” Was that actually a smile she could detect on Tamara’s face?

“No matter what we do, people may or may not like us.” She turned around. “And it’s up to us to find our place in the world. Even if we are hated for it.” She sighed. “I guess you’re okay, after all.”

For Lexie, this almost felt like an accolade.

“You can call me Tammy, by the way.”

Scene Change

While the problem that was her fighting with Tamara was, for the moment, discontinued, other troubles rose. Troubles, which Lexie had ever expected to rise within the household.

She was a quiet child, proving Tammy’s observation false, that much was a given, but she was attentive no less. She knew when something was up, and she knew when something bad was up.

And so, even though it was very late in the night, she still found herself standing silently at the stair railing, glancing downwards into the entry area as she heard the front door fall into the lock noisily. Her mothers had told her that they would be out the night, the whole night, likely, partying. Something about a bachelorette party, which, while it was unique, was still nothing out of the ordinary in Lexie’s eyes. Her mom especially often went out at night, partying, and her mum was okay with it. Rare were the cases when she went along with Roxie, but never, never before had they ended with their mothers so visibly enraged and disconnected. On both levels, the metaphysical and the plain visible, it became obvious that something was up.

__

They’ve been arguing.

Lexie continued to ignore the hissy voice belonging to the host-like, not uite existing yet smoky demon at her side, instead watching as Roxie followed her mum, but instantly went to the garage, where she was likely to get herself wasted.

__

And it seems as if it’s been a pretty serious argument.

Lexie scoffed. “Just shut up, Sabotage.” She knew the Facet would not shut up, not as long as it existed in this world, but she did not want to listen to it anymore.

She did have to admit, though, that the Facet had a point. Her mothers did not have the most harmonical relationship- by Arceus, they did not. But somehow, they always found ways to get along after a while, and if it was through the crudest way that kept Lexie awake all night. So, when a week went by, and they still refused to do as much as talk reasonably which each other, Lexie became worried. And worry, she knew, was breeding ground for negative Facets such as Sabotage, so actions had to be taken, even if they were to be hurtful.

Scene Change

Some transitions took their merry time, others almost came over the world over night. In case of Tamara and Lexie’s friendship, it was rather the latter, as they refrained from mocking and sabotaging each other’s life from then on. Sometimes, they still called each other jokingly names, but in general, they went from close acquaintances to friends fast and easily. They wouldn’t have particularly agreed with the term ‘friends’ especially during their first year together, but from an outsider’s view, that’s what the girls grew into. Their passion for music clearly helped.

And thus, an idea was soon born.

It had been almost a year since their faithful talk at Saffron park, and both were well into their teenage years now, with all the problems that came with puberty, and some more than were rather unusual at this age.

“You’re going to have a little brother?” Tammy asked, dark eyebrows raised as far as she could, which wasn’t much, honestly. Lexie often wondered if Tammy permanently dyed her hair, since she had dark eyebrows, and yet she had never seen her with a different hair color than the murky greenish blonde she’d always have. Or if it was another genetic mutation not unlike Lexie’s sheer existence.

And by now, that of her little, as of yet unborn brother as well.

“Yeah...don’t ask me how.” Not because she did not get it- she clearly understood the how, she was psychic, after all, but because she did not feel comfortable trying to explain it to Tamara. “I mean it’s...pretty weird. My mum told me she planned me. She really had to plan and prepare for me, which is, well, a given, sort of, given what I am.” Lexie twiddled with her thumbs. “But this time...she didn’t plan it. Absolutely not. It just happened. Out of the blue.” She turned to Tammy, happy that she didn’t just outright suggest the obvious: Namely, that her mum had had a heterosexual affair. That notion would have been understandable, with her mum having endangered the whole marriage simply by being her brusque, plain self and outright flirting with another woman.

Instead, Tammy almost smiled. “You know, it’s nice to know for a change that even your mothers now have to deal with something only we heterosexuals have to deal with: Unprotected fucks leading to unwanted kids.”

Lexie half laughed, half groaned. “If that’s the case from now on, then wish me luck! My mothers fuck _a lot_ , and I don’t think they ever bothered with protection so far…” She sighed.

The guitarist shook her head. “It’s still weird.” She paused. “Little brothers are nice. Ronny is a good guy, he’s no trouble for me and other at all. He likes to play on his own, he fishes, plays outside, climbs trees and all that stuff. He is out whenever he can.” Tammy couldn’t begrudge him for that, not with the conditions they lived in. “He’s a real nature’s boy.”

“But your brother is how old? Thirteen?”

“Twelve.”

“That’s hardly comparable. I’ll be…by Arceus, by the time he’s twelve, I’ll be twenty-seven!” She giggled and leaned back against the tree that had become, in a way, _their_ tree, their preferred spot of meeting. “I guess it’s nice, you know, to have a sibling now.” She began fiddling with her violin, trying out some new chords. “I won’t be that unique anymore…” She smiled.

“You’re looking forward to having a brother, hm?”

“Yeah...all these years, it was only me. I was that weird kid, that gift, if you ask my mothers. And now there’s another. That’s pretty amazing, I think, even the logistics behind him aside. Even if I’m a bit old for it.” Though, to be honest, she was also wondering if her mothers weren’t a bit told for another baby now, but it was their choice, not hers, to make.

Tammy grinned. “Still cool. How your moms showed nature the middle finger.” She sighed. “Wish someone could tell me if Ronny’s my brother or only half-brother.”

“Does it really matter? Even if you only share one parent, you share so much more...emotionally. A history together. You grew up together, after all.”

“Yeah, but…” Tamara stared into the pond. “I would like to know if my mom fucked up or not…”

Lexie, feeling that a change of topic was in order, politely coughed. She had been hoping for Tamara to change topics herself so she could apply her idea easier, but, apparently, this was not going to happen. “Hey, Tammy, you know..I have had an idea, recently.”

The older girl turned around. “Okay, shoot.”

Lexie paused. It was important for her now to stress that she would not try to attack Tammy, especially not her position within the club. Neither of them was the leader, as their was no true leader there at all, but for what she had in mind now, they kinda needed to fix positions.

“I want to found a band.”

“...oh...kay….”

Lexie continued, before she lost Tammy. “I have already looked through a few candidates, but it’s just a suggestion, you can recommend who ever you want to.”She took just a short breath, to keep her nerves from overloading. “There’s Javier…”

“The hippy drummer?”

“Yes, him. And there’s Mary-Ann…”

“The clumsy girl who claims she once lost her piano?”

“Yes. And Ricky.”

“The...what is he playing again?”

“The bass, Tammy. The bass. Don’t make me joke about it.”

Tammy only blinked. “What is there to joke about?”

Lexie sighed. Sometimes, her friend was really as hard as a coconut regarding puns and jokes. “Well, I thought about asking them, but before, I wanted to make sure you’re okay with that, as you’re going to be, well, I guess you’re going to be the lead guitarist, obviously.” She bit her lip, hiding a blush born of excitement behind her hands.

Tamara stared at her for a long time, contemplating her words. “You are serious, right? You want me to join your band...or co-found it...or something.”

Lexie nodded eagerly, long hair clouding her vision. Sometimes, she regretted not having it cut as short as Tamara had, but then she remembered how long and irrepressible it had been in comparison before, when her mom had been in control of her haircut.

“And you are, then…?”

Lexie shrugged. “Violinist and lead singer, I guess. You know I can sing pretty well.” She paused. “And so can you, so I guess you will assist me.” She very nearly winked, but suppressed the urge, either way. It still felt weird, being so close with the girl that had once tried everything in her might to make the psychic girl look bad in front of the whole music club.

Tammy snickered. “Okay, you know, that sounds pretty out of the usual...violin and guitar together. Never heard that one before.”

Lexie shrugged. “Maybe you’ve just not heard the right music before.”

She was sure Tammy was close to actually laughing at her sentence, then, which would be a first.

Taking a deep sigh, the blonde stood up, metallic accessoires clicking. “Well, then, Lexie, my dear freak.” She slapped Lexie’s shoulder. “I’m in.”

Scene Change

Auditions were a funny thing, Lexie came to realize. Even though she had pretty good plans of who to let be involved, she still invited all three of them and whoever else wanted to give their try, for Tammy’s sake, among others.

It certainly wasn’t an afternoon spent in vain.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…” Tammy leaned back so far in her folding chair that Lexie feared her to fall over any moment, but the taller girl had the amazing ability to keep her balance even with her center of gravity hiding somewhere 40 degrees behind her back. “You are seriously Nicky’s son?”

The blonde boy in front of them- two years older than Tamara and almost certainly close to being a man now, nodded, his cornrow hair seemingly glued to his scalp. “Javier Sheffield, my name is, indeed. My old man is the old drummer from Koffing and the Toxics.”

Unlike Tamara, Lexie had been aware of his identity from early one, and she kind of figured that it wasn’t out of the usual for him to continue his father’s musical legacy- she was pretty much doing the same now, wasn’t she?, but still, she found the coincidence to be too good to pass up. She had full trust in her mom for that she would have only chosen the best of the best back in the time for her band, and if she had the chance of snagging the son of another band member, then she was going to do so, come hell or high water.

Javier grinned. “And you’re Roxie’s kid, hm? Dad still speaks highly of your momma. I think he’s still sad she left.”

Lexie smiled. “Well, tell him I’m flattered- and I think mom will be too, when I tell her, but she had her reasons for leaving.” Trying to break out of her addiction was certainly one of them. Her mum might have been the other. “Well, then, Javier..show us what you can do, hm?”

Five minutes later, Lexie had the feeling her eardrums had caved in, and both she and Tammy knew they had their drummer.

“SORRY I’M LATE!!! I FORGOT MY PIANO!!!”

Lexie could only grin at Tammy. “Told you so.”

Tamara was very close to facepalming if such a gesture wasn’t entirely out of her assortment of emotional exhibitions. “Mary-Ann, right?”

The girl in front of them, skin the color of dark mocha and hair even darker, nodded. She turned around and produced a keyboard, alright...a portable one.

“Told you so. That’s how she keeps losing her instrument.”

Tammy sighed. “I give up. No reason to mistrust the psychic anymore.” Lexie chuckled. If they were to become a band, this was a rule Tammy should make sure to remember. The guitarist turned to Mary-Ann. “Pace ya, but can you even play the piano? That thing looks fishy…”

The other girl, she too one or two years older than Lexie and Tamara, pouted. “Of course! It’s the same system, basically. And I started playing the piano before I switched to keyboard!”

Tammy nodded with a reassuring geste.

“Okay, Mary-Ann, then...think you can play a bit?”

“Of course I ca...where are my sheets?” There was groaning all around, but Lexie kept on chuckling, having foreseen this and bringing spare note sheets, anyway.

And five minutes later, they had their pianist.

And after ten minutes of waiting and finding no suitable additions within the extra candidates, they were almost ready to call it a day.

“Okay, anyone missing?”

“Yes, me…!” A loud voice came from the door, belonging to a chubby, black-haired, tanned boy who huffed and dragged his instrument- a bass, behind him.

Lexie grinned at Tamara. “Oh, of course. Sorry we almost forgot you, Ricky.”

Ricky rolled his eyes. “No trouble girls. Ya wouldn’t be the first ones…” He coughed. “Want me to play, too?”

“Nah, I think you’re okay. Bassists are hard to find. They like to hide.”

Ricky rolled his eyes. “And you wonder why…”

Lexie stood up, letting the overhead light focus on her. “Okay, now that we’re all gathered her, let me introduce myself to you once more, a bit more formally.” She had approached all three of them before, in order for this audition to happen, but it had been a pretty hurried talk between doorways and hallways, and she feared not everyone had been getting who she was, and, more important in this context, what she played.

“I’m Lexie Toxic-Winter.” She paused. Javier nodded knowingly, Mary-Ann had just noticed that her shoelaces had come unbound and Ricky blinked rapidly.

“Toxic, as in…?”

“Yes, my mother is Roxie Toxic.” She grinned. She felt Tamara shifting at her side, but paid it no attention. “But that’s not important.” This was _her_ band, after all. Her hard work, and hopeful, her success. “At least if you thought I’m gonna be the lead guitarist. No, I’m not. Dear Tammy here is going to be our player.” Tamara did not bother introducing herself, instead she simply nodded to the group. “I, on the other hand…” Lexie walked behind the folding table she and Tammy had been sitting at, and got out her violin case. “I will be playing the violin.”

“Rad…” Javier seemed impressed.

Mary-Ann had now managed to take her shoes off without having intended to.

Ricky seemed the slightest bit sceptical, but then he shrugged, having practiced a string instrument as well.

“And I will be the lead singer, along with Tammy here. If any of you wants to try their hand...or mouth, rather, at singing, too, feel free to. I don’t want positions to be that strictly fixed...so that we can try out a few things, be flexible, I guess.” She shrugged. “From here on, Tammy will take over speaking, as she’s the one who organized the notes…” Lexie reclined, realizing only now that her hands were, after all, clammy cold and wet with sweat, after all.

They must have been practicing together for more than three hours already- Lexie had quickly lost her sense of time, when Mary-Ann perked up.

“Anybody got an idea for how we’re gonna name ourselves?”

Lexie paused. In all honesty, it was time for a break, as her fingers were starting to cramp. “Oh...I have actually...not thought about it.” She put her violin down. This was not a decision she wanted to make all on her own, absolutely. This was something that should be determined democratically “I guess since it’s only five of us, everyone can think of a name, make a suggestion...until next practice, I guess, and then we decide which one is the best? That’s okay for all of you?”

Consecutive nodding. “Fine! Okay! I’d call practice off now...let’s see, next week, same time, same place?” Again, she met no opposition.

Everyone started packing and leaving, until only her, Tamara and Javier were still present. The blonde boy seemed to want to talk to her in private, which Lexie only appreciated. She had been hoping to get that chance, given that he likely knew the constellation of the old band and might be able to give her a few tips. Even though it had been her idea in the first place, and she had had her merry time to mull over it, she still couldn’t deny that she felt a bit awkward in her new role as the bandleader. She supposed that’s what her mom had meant when she had said that she was still catching her stride.

Javier grinned as he approached her. “Your momma must be proud of you.”

Lexie found herself shifting from one foot to another, trying to kick up sand that wasn’t there. “Well, actually...to be honest, I have not told her about the band…”

Javier blinked. “Not? Why?”

Lexie fiddled with her hands. That was a good question. When the idea had first formed in her mind, she had been so enthusiastic that she had hardly been able to stop herself from blurting it out right away. But something had stopped her. If she presented her idea to Roxie right away, she was sure that her mom would not only be overjoyed, but also springing into action right away, helping her however she could. And while Lexie appreciated her mom’s help- she _really, really_ did...this was something she wanted to alone. This was something she wanted to establish all on her own. She wanted this to be her band, and not the band her mom had created for her.

She did not want to be the spoiled princess Tammy had once declared her to be. She knew Tammy had not meant it in a derogatory way even back then, but she felt that somehow, Tammy had had a point, and only ever since her mom had told her that she _would not need_

And so, she had remained silent. “When we are a bit more well-known...outside of school...if we manage that...and I think we can, we have the perfect base and the power and courage to make it big, we all have...then I will tell her.” Lexie looked up, cobalt eyes glistening. “Then I want to tell _and_ show her something she really can be proud of.”

Javier stared at her for a moment longer, before smiling and patting the much smaller girls shoulder. “That sounds amazing, Lex, girl. That’s the way to go.”

Lexie smirked and would have thanked him for his trust, if this wasn’t the moment her mobile went off and she was reminded that she had to teleport home, hence her mothers got suspicious of what she was doing so late at school.

Javier watched the strange girl disappear in an even stranger blueish flicker, before turning to Tamara, who had been compliantly waiting at his side, as if she knew what there was to come. Lexie wasn’t the only one he had been hoping to have a serious word with.

“Have you told her?” He asked. His connection to Tamara was just as deep as to Lexie, and thus, he felt okay to forgo formalities.

Tamara sighed loudly. “I’d hoped for her to realize it all by herself, but I come to think of that as not happening anytime soon…” She mulled, arms loosely crossed over her abdomen.

Javier took a deep breath. “And your mother?”

“She knows Lexie’s at this school. Nothing else. I don’t plan on telling her, either.”

Javier nodded. “Wise choice, Tammy. Keep your chin up. Everything’s gonna end up well, I just know.”

He wasn’t particularly wrong, but he also wasn’t right per se…

Scene Change

Band practice took place every Wednesday after school then, depending on when the different members actually got off classes. Sometimes, the youngest ones, which were Lexie, Tamara and Ricky, who was actually in Tamara’s class, practiced alone for an hour or two before the other two arrived.

Lexie was contented to see that they were starting to grow together, not only as a band- that was important in its own, of course, but also as individuals and friends.

“Ricky, it’s winter, how the hell can you play without your shirt on?” Mary-Ann asked incredulously, as she arrived and saw Ricky waltzing through the room with his bass. The boy may have been almost two hundred pounds, but he was two hundred pounds of pure, well hidden muscle, and his bass didn’t move by itself.

At least most times it didn’t, unless Lexie felt mischievous.

“I think I forgot my shirt…”

Mary-Ann pouted, but it was only playful. There was no other member of their band that could claim to have lost their instrument so often as Mary-Ann did, and it was bound to become a running gag and source of banter, sooner or later.

As were Javier’s colorful aloha shirts.

“Well, it’s better than wearing whatever Javier does, isn’t it? Don’t want our audience to go color-blind, do we?” Lexie snickered. Comparing Javier and his father Nicky was like comparing night and day, apples and bananas, her mothers...you get the point. From the stories of her mom, and from her personal experience having met Javier’s father at a recent rehearsal, Nicky at least dressed more like the gloomy kind, in dark leather garb. Javier, on the other hand, preferred loose, casual shirts of varying, eye-cancer causing colors and patterns. Lexie was unsure if she had ever seen Javier wearing the same shirt twice, and she began to wonder if this was because of the patterns being simply unprocessable for her mind, or if he truly owned so many of them that he did not have to wear the same one twice.

“Very funny, Lexie. Pretty sure it’s better than Tammy’s fake leather, Mary’s wanna-be cheerleader outfit or Ricky’s...nothing.” Javier paused, grinning at the other male member of the band.

The psychic wanted to retort something, but she noticed that Tammy retreated with a frown on her face as conversation addressed her clothes, and she remembered, with a sharp twitch in her chest area, that this was a sensitive topic for the, for the lack of a less socially-occupied word, poor girl.

“If I were you, I’d shut my big wide mouth, Ja…” Ricky paused. “Javier, we need to change your name.”

“Wut? Why the hell that?”

“Don’t you see? You’re the only one in this band whose name doesn’t somehow end in a ‘-ie’ sound. Or nickname, I guess.” Ricky added, turning to Tamara and Mary-Ann.

“Okay.” Javier stood up and began drumming on his chest like a Slaking. “From now on, I shall only be known as Jay Sheffield, first and only drummer of The Misfits.”

Lexie chuckled, even if his new nickname made her uncomfortable for some hidden reason.

It was true. They were named The Misfits. It made sense when Mary-Ann had suggested it. In a way, they all were what the name implied. Outcasts. In hers and Tamara’s case, it was obvious. Javier was actually being mocked for his laid-back, almost hippy-like attitude- something she would have never expected, were she to be honest with herself. The same with Ricky- who was being made fun of for being overweight, despite being extraordinarily strong as a result, and Mary-Ann, whose clumsiness and absent-mindedness bordered on clinical, and caused her quite the trouble at school.

For all of them, music was a way to prove themselves to be worthy, although Lexie often wished it didn’t have to be this way.

The psychic sighed, before she felt her phone go off again. She glanced downwards. “Sorry, guys, you can continue without me…it’s my mom.” It seldom happened that Roxie saw herself forced to phone her daughter, and Lexie was sure it had to be something important if she resorted to this kind of contacting.

“It’s me, what’s up?”

…

“Okay, yeah, I guess it was about time...should I, you know, come home?”

…

“Give me five minutes, and I’ll be there.” Lexie sighed and turned off her phone.

“Trouble?” Tamara asked, noticing her frown.

Lexie shrugged. “Not precisely. My mum’s in labor. Mom called me home. I guess she does not want to be alone…” Lexie began giggling. “Given that she skedaddled when I was born, I guess she wants to make sure that someone keeps her in control this time, even if I have to rope her to the dining table. She promised mum to stay this time.” Lexie winked with a playful shrug. “Or she wants to make sure there’s a protector there in case mum wants to kill her when she’s in pain…”

Tamara grinned. “Weird bunch of mothers you have there.” Her face fell then, into a almost anguished scowl. “Well, not any weirder than mine, I guess.” She blew a raspberry. “Either way, congrats on your new baby brother, I guess? Even if it’s a bit untimely...gonna see you in school tomorrow?”

“Yeah, if he’s there by then, sure. And if I’m still alive, that is.” She paused. “Me and my mothers.”

Scene Change

By the time The Misfits were ready for their first performance in front of the school, Valentine’s Day was just about to lurk around the corner, and with it, the more or less appropriate feelings.

Lexie fought off the urge to groan. “I’m okay with it, really…” The way Ricky crouched in front of her, face contorted into the most pitiful puppy face she had ever seen, one would have assumed he was asking her to sacrifice her life in a duel of honor for him, when, in reality, all he wanted from her was her okay for him dating Mary-Ann.

Which, Lexie felt, she had absolutely _no_ right to interfere with, no matter how deeply it might affect the band, especially days before their performance.

“You know how much this messed up your mother’s band!” He exclaimed, as if begging for her to forbid him from indulging in any sexual or, heck, romantic actions with their pianist.

She sighed. She was not naive, and she knew what had happened in the past. But she was not going to let that carry over into her own band. Absolutely not. “I do know, Ricky. But I trust you and Mary-Ann not to take out any potential lover’s bat within our ranks. if not..” She slapped her right hand against her petticoat dress. “You’ll get in trouble with me, and believe me, you _do not want_ to get in trouble with a psychic.”

He might have yelped at these words, but he was finally convinced that he should try his best with Mary-Ann.

The whole affair, though, made Lexie overthink matters of her own personal life. There was at least one person of the opposite gender in her life that she really felt close and it occurred to her that while she had never considered dating him before, she surely wasn’t opposed to it, either.

Such a delicate matter, though, required preparation and advice. And that advice would not have to come from her mothers, given that neither had experience dating the _opposite_ gender.

And even if they did, Lexie supposed that their advice would only turn things sour. She was looking for a healthy, sane relationships of all things, and not an emotional rollercoaster ride decorated with frightful mental analysis.

Thankfully, there was someone she could turn to, someone who was already in a relationship and had been for quite some time, to Lexie’s astonishment.

“Tammy…”She started, when they were sitting at their usual place at the pond, originally planning to rehearse a bit more, a plan that had been swiftly forgotten on grounds of exceptionally nice weather that called for an afternoon nap.

“You and Oltman...how did you…” She wringed her hands. “How did you find each other?”

Tammy blinked. “Find? He was in my class.”

Lexie sighed. This was not the answer she had been looking for. “I know. But how did you, you know...get together? Become boyfriend and girlfriend? What’s the secret behind?”

Tammy grinned. “Really? You’re asking me? Shouldn’t you be asking your mom? I thought she could get every girl she ever laid her eyes on…”

Lexie would have groaned with exasperation if she wasn’t sure this kind of joke would swiftly go over her friend’s head. “First off, every girl, Tammy. That’s the thing. Every girl. My mom is lesbian, remember? I’m not…” Lexie sighed. “Second...how do I put this nicely...me and my mothers...we’re _different_... I…” She sighed. “I guess I inherited something from both of them, and in a way, that _makes_ get every girl, she _fucked_ every girl she ever came across into blissful oblivion. I swear, if she had been able to create kids back then, too, she would be biologically overrepresented in the gene pool by now…” Lexie sighed again. “She has that charm, I guess. It works just well for her, I mean, she got mum, that in itself is an accomplishment. But it’s just not something that will work for me. I do want the kind of relationship they have, in a way...just with less drama...do you understand me?”

Tammy, who had been in the process of twinging with her guitar, nodded. “I think so. But, I don’t know how to help you. I was friends with Oltman before it worked out between us. I guess both of us wanted to get into it. He thought I was cute, and I thought he was okay-looking, and yeah, we spend a lot of time together, going out, eating out...all these things I suppose couples do. He was really polite, which is a plus in a guy, I suppose. But in general, I do not think I can give you real advice.”

Lexie, though, had been reminded of someone, and smiled. “Don’t worry, Tammy. I think you just gave me an idea…”

Scene Change

Maybe it was a little bit shortsighted to visit Esteban two days prior to their concert. Lexie could hardly contain her nervousness at the thought of playing for the whole school, but now, she felt her heart trying to escape her chest as she stood in front of Esteban’s small, two storied house. She laughed nervously when the Houndooms and Houndours of his mother came storming out of the house to greet her. She had never been afraid of dark Pokemon, even if they were the natural enemies of psychic Pokemon. And with these Pokemon, she felt especially close connected, seeing as how often she slept over at his house, whenever she had reason to do so. The Pokemon had literally grown up together with her, and had grown to be her protectors, despite her never having any ambitions to become a trainer, likely much to the chagrin of both of her mothers. She did not rule out getting a Pokemon later in life, but for now, she wanted to concentrate on music.

And on winning Esteban’s affection, if such a thing could be considered a true goal.

The purple-haired, blue-eyed boy opened the door, surprised at seeing her this late in the day. “Lex, honey, I did not expect you.” He smiled. “What gives me the honor?”

Lexie felt herself blushing, and it took all of her willpower not to stutter in front of him. He was really cute, but she had never bothered admiring him for this physical fact. He was not the muscular or manly guy Oltman was. In a way, he was rather petite, but it was a relative thing for her to talk about figure. Esteban was easily two heads taller than her. “I...I want to talk to you, Esteban…” They had never managed to agree on a nickname for him. He was particular about his name, and any abbreviation of it that Lexie could come up with, so in the end, they had simply agreed on keeping it as it was. That had been almost ten years ago, and still, Lexie used his full name every time she approached or mentioned him.

“Okay...sure...come in…”

It still amazed her how small the house was, and how he could still live there with his parents and their dog pack. Still, she had felt homelike whenever she had slept over, often camping in the attic, which was just one small, crammed room with a slanted roof. It was much cozier than her own, spaced house, and much older, too, almost like forest witch’s hut, and underneath the roof, the sounds of the mountain around them were hearable all through the night, singing her a lullaby together with the spring’s rain or the summer’s thunderstorms.

This time, she sat down in their living room, on the colorful couch that Esteban himself had chosen. She remembered that, as small kids, his room looked as if a rainbow had crashed into it. Everything that came in color was colored in there, even the lampshades, the flower vases, the cabinets. And if something wasn’t colorful by default, Esteban would paint it.

These memories filled her with joy, and she found herself smiling at his face as he prepared some lemonade and pudding for them. Even at his age, he was a pretty good cook. Actually better than both of her mothers, if she were to be honest. Not that it was a great challenge to be a better cook than her mom. Anyone who knew how to boil eggs was one.

“So….” He put down the tablet in front of them, and sat down opposite of her. “What is it that you wanted to talk about, Lex?”

She took a deep breath. She knew she shouldn’t be nervous, Esteban was just as psychic as her, if much weaker, of course. But still, she hesitated baring down her true feelings for him right away.

“We’ve been friends for so long, Esteban…” She whispered, eyes downcast at the red, frayed carpet underneath her. How many times had she stared at the oriental pattern, and felt less nervous? “I….” She paused. “I….wanted to say that I started to think of you as something else, recently. I realized...we’ve been so close for such a long time...maybe it is time, you know...to try something else?” She felt her cheeks positively burning, and also had the feeling she was making a total fool out of herself there, so instead of stuttering any longer, she pushed forward with all the intensity she could gather. “What I want to say is that...I like you, Esteban, _that way_ , and I wanted to know if you did...too?”

She took several breaths to stabilize herself. There. The truth was out. Now it was up to Esteban.

The poor boy looked positively baffled. So much that he forgot he had been pouring lemonade into his cup and it started to overflow not only the cup, but his hand as well, creating a puddle on the couch table. Lexie would have laughed if her voice hadn’t asphyxiated somewhere within her throat.

“Oh, whoah...this comes as a surprise, Lexie…um…” He put down his cup, finally realizing that he was sugaring his skin and the doily. “I am flattered, I really am, you are a nice and sweet girl, but...um...how do I say this best…”

Scene Change

“Hah, told ya!” Roxie walked through the kitchen, nose high. Sabrina would have berated her if she hadn’t been busy caring for little Lennox, and walking down bare-chested was a sure way of _not_ berating Roxie. “Told ya my gaydar never gives off false positives! Told ya he was gay!”

Lexie scoffed angrily. “You could have told me _before_ and spared me the embarrassment…” She folded her arms underneath her and continued to sulk, face still warming up whenever she thought of the afternoon that bombed so hard. But it couldn’t be helped. Their performance was scheduled for tomorrow morning, and she had to get a good dose of night’s sleep in order to be fit for it, not lay awake with all kinds of awkward thoughts.

Scene Change

“Are you ready?” Lexie shouted through the hall, both to give herself the much needed self-esteem boost, as well as the gather and encourage the band, _her_ band, for the play that would determine if they were up to the challenge of performing in front of audiences that did not consist of bored janitors and friends waiting to pick up band members.

“Yes, madam!” Four voices screamed at her, and Lexie took a deep breath, smiling brightly from one ear to the other. For the last time, she checked her violin and the equipment and watched, out of the corner of her eyes, everyone else do the same. It was then, already, that the curtain opened and she was the first one to step out.

She barely heard what the director of the music club said about them. Faintly, she heard her name being called, and that of her friends, and how they would perform instrument-only. She had figured this would be the best way to start- partly, but not exclusively because she herself did not feel totally up to singing in front of audiences. She would still have to practise a bit more to be up to the standard she had set for herself.

She did not even bother starting slow. She plunged right into fast beats, getting out of her violin what she had pumped into it over the past four years. Only to step aside after a few beats and letting Tammy take stage.  
That was the plan. They played together, Tammy’s hard, beasty guitar and her fragile, almost petit violin. To some, it may have sounded like a battle- especially with the way Javier tortured the drums, really, that boy could overact sometimes, but that was nothing new to her, his father had been the same- but in the end, it was no battle. It was not meant to be a battle. In the end, it was supposed to be a fusion.

They alternated for a long time, Tammy just as intensive in her play as Lexie was. When they were on their last practice trials, and Tammy had felt that she still was not full _into_ the song, she had asked Lexie for advice. Lexie had been flattered, really, but what she said then was anything but proper.

‘If you want this to work...to really _get_ into the people...to sweep them along with the beat...then I want you to play as if you want to rape your guitar.’ She said, taking a word out of her mom’s dictionary, quite literally.

She was sure every other member of the band was, by then, staring at her as if she had spontaneously grown a second head, but Tammy just smirked and nodded, and _by Arceus_ ,, if her next play-through hadn’t busted the windows, Lexie didn’t know what else ever would. Not as if she treated her own instrument any better. She felt she was playing chores that would either make her violin snap, or her fingers, there was no alternative. But, by God, she felt more alive than ever.

They were two-thirds through the song when she had the chance to pause for a short moment. And in that moment, she turned around and threw her violin into the air. She had not practiced that, it had just been a, honestly, fucked up idea in her mind, but now there, on the stage, she took the chance and just when she knew that she would miss her entry if she didn’t start playing again, she caught the bow and the violin, and fell to her knee, at the last second continuing to play.

She was pretty sure that either the hall was on fire then, or it was her herself. Or both. She really couldn’t be sure anymore. Everything was in a hazy, and when she ended the song, standing back to back with Tammy, who was just as sweaty and whose breath came out just as short as her own, she knew...she just knew they had made it.

Scene Change

“Oh, my, fucking…” Mary-Ann was still shaking. In fact, she was shaking so much that the music sheets fell out of her hand and Lexie, too tired physically to bother with her hands, just caught them with her powers.

“That was outta tis world…” Javier agreed with her, wiping sweat away from his cornrows.

Ricky was simply speechless, and just reclined against the wall.

Lexie could not contain her joy. She could not contain it anymore. She still heard the applause ringing in her ears, and she danced around the back hall with Tammy, dark green petticoat dress swinging freely around her legs.

She was so caught in her own world, that she did not register the door being opened. Tammy, though, certainly did, as she immediately recognised the person that squeezed itself through the metallic double doors.

Silence overcame the guitarist, as she paused in her frolicking, while Lexie still did not catch on the sudden danger.

“So this is where I find you, Tamara.”

Tammy stared straight at her mother’s face, unblinking, unmoving. “I told you I would give a concert with my band today, mother.”

Billy sneered. “So did you, indeed. I just did not expect you to play alongside this bastard.” She nodded towards Lexie, who stopped spinning around and watched the scene unfold from afar.

Tammy stretched her neck. “She is no bastard, mother. She is a fine girl. She is a really good musician.”

“And so was her ‘mother’,” Billy indicated, still not believing the biologically impossible story behind. “And still look how she ended up, that whore.”

Lexie remained silent, glancing between her friend and her friend’s mother. Only slowly, dread began to rise in her stomach, and she realized the dimension of her troubles.

Billy turned around, protruding a small bottle from her trouser pocket. “Get your ass home, cunt. I don’t want to see you ever play again with this bitch here, lest you get as fucked over as I did.”

Tammy turned around to face Lexie one last time, with a hardened face that told Lexie already that she would never obey, but still, the younger girl began to worry for her friend.

Once Billy had left, Tammy in tow, Lexie felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to face Javier, a similar apprehensive look on his face. “You did not know?” He asked softly.

“No…” Lexie began fiddling with her dress, all happiness washed out of her like water color out of a towel. “I had absolutely no idea.”

Scene Change

And by Arceus, she felt bad about it. She had heard the stories from her mom. Hell, she had _seen_ Billy at the wedding, but had failed to recognise the facial similarities. Then again, Billy and Tamara did not look all that much alike. Billy had very dark, almost black hair, Tammy was a blonde, for heaven’s sake! Or maybe she wasn’t, and she did dye her hair in the end, Lexie couldn’t be so sure.

And then there were the faces...thinking hard about it, Lexie still found that they had very different faces. Different noses, definitely.

But then..their eyes. When she pictured Tammy, and when she rummaged through her mom’s collection of old photos and compared her mental imagine of Tammy with Billy, then it became obvious: They had the same eyes. Same grey, big, slightly sloppy eyes.

Lexie sighed. They didn’t even have the same surname, for whatever reason, but that was no excuse. She should have know, she knew now, she really should have known, but what help was that knowledge now for her? None. Tammy hadn’t been to school in two days, and she was really starting to worry. People were asking _her_ for Tammy’s whereabouts, knowing her to be her best friend, but what could she tell them, since she did not even have Tammy’s phone number? Heck, neither did she know where Tammy lived. Cross quarter was big, the Everett street was quite big, and she did not want to walk aimlessly through a part of Saffron that was less than safe for girls her age. Or for anyone else, really. Even powerful psychics had to be wary around a quarter which most outstanding feature was the ability to stay at the peak of Saffron’s drug trafficking for twenty years straight, and boasted with the highest relative percentage of murders of not only Saffron, but all cities in the North of Kanto.

She wasn’t sure if her mothers took notice of her behaviour. Sabotage, of course, did, but Lexie had long since learned not to pay the Facet any mind, and ignore its annoying queries. Both she and her mum were sure that they were still at the beginning of Sabotage’s trials, and that the Facet would not stop at being a snarky limpet, but for now, she could not find it within her to worry about the devil creeping through their halls.

It was, even Lexie had to admit, way too late to be doing homework, but she had not been able to concentrate on her calculus assignment when she got calls every hour or two from the other band members, asking her if Tammy had reappeared yet. As rebellious as the punk rocker had presented herself to be, it had been a long time since she had last missed school unauthorized. Lexie could not remember a single incident ever since she had co-founded the band.

She was just about to call for her mum’s help- fully knowing that it would earn her a scowl, as her mothers were busy with their newborn, when she heard the doorbell ring. It was an unusual event at eleven pm, and she half expected it to be some annoying paparazzi that wanted to take pictures of her unusual family, but instead, she saw a sunken, limping figure leaning against the wall.

“Hey Lexie...can I stay here the night?”

Lexie was sure she had shrieked.

Scene Change

“It’s nothing, it’s okay, really…”

“Nothing?” Lexie scoffed, carefully applying the ice pad, wrapped in a towel, onto Tammy’s eye. “You look like a streusel cake and you say you’re okay?” She was switching between anger and worry faster than any Kecleon, and before Tammy had any chance to disagree with her, she was off into the ground floor bathroom again, getting gauze and ointment for the cuts across Tammy’s arms. She wasn’t going to tell Tammy, but she was also going to get some painkillers. Her friend had not admitted to having a severe headache after at least one night spent without any sleep, and several hours walking the streets of Saffron after fleeing her home in a frenzy.

On her way, Lexie nearly bumped into her mum. Being as stressed as she was, she did not register who it was and she wildly assumed that it was her mom instead, forcing her to follow up with an explanation. “This is Tammy, she’s a friend of mine from my school...she wasn’t at school for the last days, and I think she got beaten at home...she wants to stay here the night, that okay? Oh…” Only at her last word did she actually look up and registered the burning red eyes of her mum.

Gulping with anxiety still, Lexie repeated her question. “Can she stay the night?”

Sabrina nodded. “Of course. I think we should have a spare bed…”

“No, no, no problem, she can sleep on the couch, she’s okay with that.” Sabrina watched Lexie hurry back to her friend, her worry clouding her mind. She sighed and walked up the stairs, already knowing who to expect up there.

“I know what you’re thinking, Roxie.” She whispered, holding out a hand to reassure her before her wife could start her wild spit. “But don’t. Please don’t go downstairs and blow off your anger. Please.”

“But it’s….” Roxie gesticulated wildly, spinning her hands around her head as if she were trying to fawn air to herself. “It’s that ‘ore’s daughter! What the fuck is she doing in my _house_? What the fuck is that shithead’s daughter doing _in my house_?”

“She is hurt, Roxie. Billy beat her. We cannot send her back to her abuser.”

Roxie snarled and cursed, stomping around the gallery as she tried to keep the urge to run downstairs and throttle the young woman under control. “I can’t believe..this is, is...argh…” She grabbed her hair and seemed to pull at it, all the same glaring daggers at Sabrina, who remained calm.

“She is not her mother, Roxie. She is a fine girl. And she is friends with Lexie. You do not want to see your daughter’s friends hurt, do you?”

“No, for fuck’s sake…” Roxie answered through clenched teeth.

“There, there.” Sabrina sighed, leaning over the railing and watching Lexie tending to Tammy. Roxie, unresting so far, decided to join her with movements that seemed to be fuelled by reluctance alone.

“What should we do?” She asked, suddenly, voice much calmer than before.

“What do you mean?” Sabrina asked, even though she had a very good feeling what Roxie was talking about.

The ex-rocker again gesticulated wildly with her nervous hands. “We can’t just leave her like that, can we?”

Sabrina sighed. “If you think about calling the police...I do not think this would help her. Her father lives in this city as well, she would just switch households. And he is not better, he basically abandoned her, hence the reason for the custody battle.”

“Father?”

“Daniel.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake…” Sabrina couldn’t help but smile a bit as her wife turned around and nearly crashed her head into the opposite wall in exasperation. “What kind of fucking batshit crazy thing is this?” She lamented, not quite yet believing that two of her former band members had procreated. Together, of all things.

“So we should do nofing?”

“For the moment? Yes. She will be alright, I’ll see to it that her mother is accurately calmed down once she returns. And she can stay here until she has recovered enough that she can be let home safely.”

“You won’t heal her?”

Sabrina shook her head. “The longer she stays here, the better. Healing her would just cut short the time she can rest and recover.”

There was a long pause between the two women, as they listening to Lexie quietly reassuring Tammy that everything would be alright, while the older girl was fighting the tears.

“Why did she turn to us?”

Sabrina closed her eyes. She knew there were several ways for her to answer. She could answer truthfully, or she could answer with a half-truth. She supposed that right now, the half-truth would be less threatening for Tamara.

And for Lexie, really.

“She is Lexie’s friend. And she likely knew just who Lexie was.” Slowly, Sabrina turned to her wife. “Or rather, who her mom was. And if you had to flee from your abuser, what better place to run to than the home of their greatest enemy?”

Scene Change

It was way past midnight when Lexie was finally convinced that her friend was alright, freshly bandaged, put to sleep with enough painkillers and cuddled into blankets and pillows enough to suffocate in, that she dared to go to bed herself. She was so tired, so way past her usual point of tiredness, that again, she nearly bumped into her mother on the way upstairs.

_Lexie…_

She looked up. She did not feel like there was any need to use their telepathic voices, given that her mom was long since asleep, but, she supposed, that there was the chance of her listening in on them from inside the bedroom.

Plus, it was hard to keep a line of straight thinking when everything in her screamed for sweet rest, and she felt as if she was already beginning to hallucinate her mattress underneath her skin.

_Know that I do support your relationship with Tamara. It is your choice who you befriend, and it is not mine to interfere._

Lexie would have blushed weren’t she simply too tired for even the most basic human functions.

_But I cannot say the same for Roxie. She had her prejudices, and she has them for a reason._

Lexie felt herself almost falter under her mother’s stern look, even though she know that it did not apply to her specifically.

_She will not be as welcoming of Tamara as I will be, and I do not think I can convince her of the rightness of your actions tonight. She will be angry, I assume._

Lexie yawned.

_I know, mum, I ‘know’. Isn’t this something we can discuss tomorrow?_

Sabrina sighed. Lexie was right, in this regard, it was very late, and she had promised Roxie to come to bed soon. Knowing Roxie, there was a fool-proof way to make her calm down, and the sooner they were finished, the sooner Lexie could get her well-deserved sleep.

_Yes. I just want you to know that you should expect Roxie to be less than welcoming of this change of events._

Maybe that was, in the end, putting it nicely.

Scene Change

Lexie still felt wary whenever she waited in front of the school for Tamara to arrive. Every day, there was the worry following her teleport that her friend would, again, not turn up. Every day, there was the worry that Tamara had been beaten again, maybe even heavier than before, and instead of ending up with a black eye, she instead ended up with a broken arm, or a broken nose, or a cut so deep it would have to be sewn together again. Their hugs each morning before school lasted longer and longer, until Tammy even became to complain that they were going to miss school if they kept this up.

It seemed as if some great relief had washed over them, and with spring on the way, they were already planning for the next concerts. Especially since their last one had attracted unexpected spectators…

They were in the middle of rehearsal, or, alternatively, in the middle of fooling around, when they heard a knocking on their door. They would have almost overheard it, and such, missed a great chance, when the music club director had pity with them and their guest and let them in.

“Hey, misfits…” The teacher called out to them. “Here’s someone who was mightily impressed with your performance.”

Lexie was the first one to turn around, and she was also the first one to recognize their guest. And, frankly out of character for her, she let out a high squeal of surprise and shock. “Oh, by Arceus…” She ran closer to the young boy, and did a curtsey in front of him, the first time she really, _really_ felt this was appropriate. “It is a pleasure to welcome you, Mister Monde.”

The black haired boy grinned sheepishly, obviously used to be recognized that easily. “Thank you. It’s cool meeting you in person, ladies and gentlemen.”

Javier, Mary-Ann and Ricky equally seemed flabbergasted at their guest, and for a while, only managed to stand there with their eyes and mouths wide open, leaving the duty of showing the young man around to Lexie, who gladly took it upon herself, as she was the bandleader, after all.

She had managed to park him with Javier, both equally interested in Pokemon, when Tammy approached her with the most confused look Lexie had ever seen on her face, which was saying a lot. “Who the fuck is this?”

Lexie blinked. “You do not know him?”

Tammy rolled her eyes. “Sorry, I live beneath a rock, I’m not as informed as you are…”

Lexie sighed. “This is Pierre Monde. He is Cynthia’s son.” She paused. “And Lance’s, but don’t let anyone know that.” She only knew because she was a mind reader, and her mother was a mind reader, and things like that never stayed hidden from mind readers.

It took Tammy a comically long moment to register Lexie’s words, and an equally long moment to consider the consequences. “This cabinet of a boy is... “ She started pointing at him. “The son of _two_ champions?”

“Yes, he is, but don’t tell anyone. He dyes his hair black so as to tick no one off to his true hair color. If he ran around being a pink-hair, everyone would figure out at once who his illegitimate dad is.” She smiled. The stories you got to know when you were the daughter of a gym leader, and a psychic one at that.

“Okay...I must say, I cannot decide right now if I should be overwhelmed or underwhelmed...I mean, what is he _doing_ here? What does he want from us?”

Lexie smiled widely. “He’s here with his mother on vacation. Will stay here until April. It’s pretty cool, they have a vacation home near Lavender. He saw our concert, and he thought it was amazing, so, well, he wanted to meet us.” Her eyes were still shining as she repeated everything Pierre had said to her, his musical voice hypnotizing her. Her mothers both had secretly admired Cynthia, who was, no doubts, one of the most beautiful woman Lexie had ever seen. It weirded her out, almost, to know that said Cynthia once had been trying to coax her mothers into a threesome, but she guessed, with immense power came a tendency of overestimate one’s persuasiveness.

It stood to be proven that Cynthia’s son was just as handsome as she was.

Lexie did not even try to hide her interest in Pierre. She would be hard pressed to find a girl who wouldn’t, except if her friend Tammy hadn’t proven to be fully unimpressed in him, both as a person, and as a young man.

She herself had no idea what it truly was. His charm? His looks? His way of talking to her, that made her want to glue herself to his lips? He was a perfect young eloquent man, being able to talk to her about the whole of the world and never bore her with his remarks. She had not meant to walk with him all the way from the school to the park in one afternoon, and neither had he meant to spend so much time with her, he admitted with a chuckle when they ended up flipping stones into the pond, and Lexie cheating the tiniest bit with her powers. Somehow, she ended up sitting in his lap, joking about things only kids of well-known persons could get, like the various ways her mothers kept paparazzi away from their home, and she laughed when he told her that his mother liked to jinx her Garchomp on uninvited visitors.

It was sometime very late that night, so late that Lexie began worrying that her mothers might start calling her, when they decided to star gaze. It was almost spring, it was a cloudless, still chilly night, and the stars were plainly visible.

Pierre smiled. “The sky looks different from Sinnoh…”

Lexie blinked before getting what he was hinting at. “Because you’re on the other hemisphere, right…”

He nodded. “So many new things here to learn in Kanto...it’s sad I just get to have these few weeks a year. I’d like to spend more time here.”

Lexie stared downward into her lap, biting her lip and wrestling with her hands. “I would like to spend more time with you, too…” She whispered, fully aware that, while her face was positively glowing, it was at least not visible in the darkness of the park.

She could have sworn that Pierre was hugging her from behind at this words. “That is wonderful, Lexie. I...actually, I would like to get to know you better as well. I found your play amazing, and now that I know what kind of person you are, I am even more amazed at all the hard work you put into the band. You are a hard-working, intelligent girl. I like you.”

She turned around to face him. “So...could I...I mean...would you mind if I visited you at your vacation home some day soon, maybe?” There was no telling of what came out of her mouth was her voice, or just her imagination anymore, because she sure as hell found herself unable to speak properly.

Nevertheless, Pierre seemed to have gotten the gist of what she was saying. “Sure. I can give you the address.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it. You’re a great...guy…” Lexie looked downwards. She had once asked her mom if there was any way to know when it was the perfect moment to start a relationship. She hadn’t been serious back then, more curious, but the answer she had gotten seemed to fit the situation pretty well. ‘You won’t know it before, dahling. You will only know it when you’re plunged headfirst into it.’

And so, she was fairly sure, this night in February, sitting in Pierre’s lap, next to the pond that had cemented her friendship with Tammy...this was the right moment.

She leaned forward, fully intend on kissing Pierre, when his phone rang.

She pulled back fast, so that he could answer. “Oh, damn it...heheh…” He sighed, clicking the phone shut as soon as he had taken a look at the caller. “That was my mother. I have to get home, right now. Sorry.”

Lexie smiled. “It’s okay. It’s no problem. I suppose I should go home as well.”

The bid farewell to Pierre, her heart fluttering in a way she had never felt before.

Scene Change

Maybe she should have wasted a bit more time taking advance of his invitation. It was never good manner to come barging in, after all. But she supposed, she waited at least until the next weekend, making sure to look okay. Hair done, new clothes, the tiniest bit of make-up...with her attire, it was difficult making sure that her mothers did not know what there was to be brewing. Not that it really bothered her, the thought of her mothers knowing about her first amorous adventures. But sometimes, she did not want their interference. Not in matters this delicate, matters she felt she could handle well just by herself. She excused herself, not bothering with a justification she had never needed before whenever she went out of the house.

Finding Pierre’s vacation home was easy. It was easily the biggest, fanciest, most pompous house she had ever seen, and it was secured like a high alert prison.

Not that this stopped her from teleporting right onto his threshold. Anybody would be hard pressed to stop a psychic of her caliber, anyway. She was nervous ringing the doorbell, very much so, but the thought of seeing Pierre, of, maybe, finally getting her first kiss boosted her courage.

She smiled when Pierre opened her, but she was too much of a psychic not to register the nervousness in his features, and the fact that his forehead was slick with sweat.

“Oh, Lexie, oh...did not expect you already.” He said, trying to smile.

What came next was, in a way, a set up Lexie had seen before. On TV, in cheap romance novels and in gossip magazines, but going through it personally, with no laughing audience in the background, was a painful experience she wouldn’t have minded skipping.

First she heard a female voice calling out for Pierre that sounded way too young to be his mother. Then, she heard Pierre curse under his breath and many, many thoughts race through his brain, most of them too crude to repeat and many of them laden with a message she did not like. And then, only then, did she see the girl walking up from the hallway to their right, flower in hair, wearing a pajama.

“Hey, honey, what’s up? Who’s this girl?”

Lexie just stared blankly into Pierre’s eyes. There was no emotion, no feeling, nothing behind her icy cold eyes this moment. Nothing. Pierre felt as if her eyes were a black hole that moment, sucking his soul out of him and into eternal damnation.

And given who she was, this was an entirely possible proposition.

Slowly breathing in and out, Lexie spoke at length. “I may ask you the same...who is this, Pierre?”

The other girl’s gaze wandered between Lexie and Pierre. “Pierre…?”

“Um, yeah…” He sighed. “Well, uh...Lex...this is Venessa...she’s, well...she’s my girlfriend.”

There had been no need for him to conform. She had known her to be his girlfriend from the moment she had appeared on her retina, from the moment her thoughts had drilled themselves into her mind. All she had needed was confirmation, and only because it felt more real if she heard it from his mouth, and not from his mind alone.

“Nice of you to tell me now that you have a girlfriend. After alluring me for a whole afternoon.”

“Um...it’s not how it looks like, really.”

“Oh, really?” Lexie rolled her eyes. “How else shall it look like, then, asshole? What is there that I can keep on misinterpreting? Do you want to open a harem, or something? Without me, pisser. It’s over before it even began. Don’t bother contacting me, or my band, for the matter, again. No one cheats on me this way, and gets away. No one. And you..:” She pointed accusingly at the girl.

“Better check your boyfriend standards, You’ve got a potential bastard here at hand. Flirts with other girls while he’s taken. You may be rich and famous, but that’s no carte blanche for having as many girls as your hand has fingers...though, now that I think about it, maybe soon, your hand will be your only girlfriend left, Pierre.” And with that, she turned around on the spot, teleporting away. Though to where, she was not sure herself. Only when she was already whisked away did she realize that she was crying.

Scene Change

She supposed there was a point of irony to the fact that she ended up at a bar. Theoretically, she wasn’t old enough to let herself be seen there, absolutely not, but it wasn’t as if anyone gave a shit, her the least. She looked older than she was, safe for her height, and she had had her first taste of liquor when she wasn’t even tall enough to reach the surface of the bar thanks to her mom, so no one could say this was anything new to her. She wasn’t inclined to get drunk tonight, though, so she decided, in order to keep herself from slipping down the slippery rope- and hell did she know how one who ended there would look like, she had the prime example sitting at home, she decided to rummage through her contact list. She at first thought of calling Esteban, given that he was still her best friend, even after his unexpected coming out, but then, she stopped herself. Ever since he had told her about being gay, their talks about boys had ended up weird. If she knew him, and she supposed she did well enough, he would only ask her if Pierre had a nice ass, and then try to date him himself, something which certainly wouldn’t help her mood.

So instead, she ended up phoning Tammy, and, sooner than she had expected it, her punk rocker friend turned up at the bar herself. She didn’t even wait to greet her, instead embraced her warmly.

“I’m sorry it didn’t turn out so well, Lexie.” She sighed, rubbing the smaller girl’s back. “He’s a real asshole. A rich, famous asshole, but an asshole nevertheless.”

Lexie smiled. “It’s...argh, I can do whatever I want, I don’t seem to have any luck with the guys, now, do I?”

Tammy chuckled sadly. “You tell me. I don’t think me and Oltman will work out either. He’s just so...I don’t know, he’s not investing anything in this relationship anymore.” She paused. “But this is not about me. It’s about you. And you’re still young, Lexie. Fuck, you’re only fourteen, barely fifteen. You do not need to have a boyfriend just yet. You can still wait one, two, five, ten years, and no one will give a fuck. And if you want to have sex, you don’t need a boyfriend either. Heck, your mother is the perfect example, isn’t she? Sort of, at least.” Tammy tried to smile for her friend’s sake, but by now, Lexie had registered something that upset her even more, in its impossibleness.

“Fuck, he followed me here!”

Tammy turned around, seeing the black-clad boy storming through the front entry, obviously looking for something.

“Shit..well, then, Lexie, I’m gonna get you out of here, no worries.”

Lexie had, in all of her life, never been forced to escape through a restroom window, another thing she had supposed only happened in movies and bad books, but here she was, letting herself fall into Tammy’s shoulders as she carefully sorted her dress out so that her best friend didn’t accidently got a peek at her underwear.

“What an asshole…” Lexie snarled at the building as if this would someone hurt Pierre physically. “Where to now?”

Tammy paused, then a devious grin started forming on her face. “Can you teleport us home? To my home, I mean.”

Lexie blanched. “Won’t your mother be home?”

“No, she’s never home at night.”

Lexie gulped, but had to take Tammy’s words for granted as she grabbed her friend’s hand and teleported them away.

Scene Change

Despite being friend for years now, Lexie had never been inside of Tamara’s home. While she was not particularly shocked- she had imagined it to be much worse, actually, she was still amazed at how three persons could live in a house so... _small_. There were only three rooms, a living/kitchen area, a tiny bathroom and the bedroom, confirming her fears that Tammy, while not being forced to sleep in the same bed as her mother anymore, still shared a single bedroom with all of her family members.

Speaking of…

“Back already, sis?”

Lexie stared wide-eyed at the boy that came crawling out of the bedroom, bedsheet thrown over his shoulders. So this was her little brother Ronny? He looked nothing like her. If anything, he looked like a tiny version of Billy, with brown eyes. No wonder Tammy was left wondering if he was her brother or half-brother.

“Yeah, but...” Tammy patted his shoulder, and kneeled down to adjust the blanket around his small shoulders. “…go back to sleep Ronny, I’ll be away soon again. Don’t forget to lock the door after you, okay?” Ronny nodded and yawned, once again reclining into the bedroom while Tammy continued to rummage through the refrigerator.

“Ah, here we are.” Tammy stretched her back, holding a box of…

“Well, what do you think this is?” She asked Lexie, sheepish grin on her face.

“Eggs?” Lexie asked, unsure if she was being made fun of.

Tammy nodded. “Right, but not quite right. These are special eggs. Filled eggs, but not with yolk or cream. Does the term propane carboxylic acid tell you anything?”

Lexie opened her eyes wide. “Butyric acid. Where did you...never mind, I might not want to know where you got it from.”

Tammy grinned. “Indeed. It does not matter where it got from. It matters where it ends, tonight.”

Scene Change

Sure, throwing the eggs against the windows of Pierre’s vacation home might not have been a legal thing to do, and with all the security guards around, it certainly was not the safest thing to do, either. But it so made up for all the shitty things Pierre had done to her in the short amount of time they had known each other that these were negligible side factors. They had so much fun each time an egg burst against the wall or against a window, and the awful, horrendous smell reached their noses even from their hiding spot. They could not stop laughing, no matter how dangerous it got, no matter how much the night marched on, and it became obvious that going home was not an option anymore.

Somehow, they ended up at a wild pond a few miles away from the vacation home. Lexie was not afraid of the dark, nor was she of getting lost. She knew where she lived, and she could teleport them home every moment she wanted to. But neither of them wanted to go home now. Lexie was still filled to the brim with emotions she felt she had nearly no control over. She listened to the wood cracking underneath their shoes, and to the cries of the various wild Pokemon, holding onto Tammy’s hand for fear they might lose each other if they let go.

Tired after all, but not tired enough to fall asleep, they sat down next to a pond. It was not _their_ pond and it was not _their_ tree they leaned against, but it was good enough for the moment.

And after a while, Lexie felt herself starting to cry.

“There, there…” Tammy said, giving her a handkerchief. “It’s allright. He got his lesson. He’ll know better than to ever betray you, or any other girl for the matter, again.”

Lexie shook her head. “That’s not it, it’s…” Hell if she knew what it was. She just felt like crying right now. “I was just hoping to...I was hoping to…” She sniffed. She just didn’t know what she even wanted anymore. If this was what indicated a shift of Facets, as her mum had explained to her, then she was in for one hell of a ride.

She had been hoping to find some love. To find someone to accept her as what she was. To find someone to lean against, to cry with when she was sad, and to laugh with when she was happy. She had been hoping to find someone who shared her passions, and her ideas, and who would make her feel safe and…. _normal_ for a change.

And she had been hoping to be kissed for the first time today.

“I was hoping to get my first kiss from you.”

She really had not meant to say that. At least, she thought so. She couldn’t be sure. In the end, it made sense. All she had been looking for had been there the whole time, masquerading as her best friend. She was dully aware of the Beedril’s hive she was grabbing into when she said it, she was dully aware of the hell of consequences that would follow this, of the kind of trouble she got not only herself, but both of their families into by admitting that, she was aware of the fact, that, had she been honest to herself, she would have found love already.

But there it was again, what she had learned from her mom, no? People expected her to play by their rules, and when she didn’t, it made them upset. She was sure this was not the way she had meant it to be interpreted by Lexie, surely not, since it meant that she was not playing by _her_ rules, either, but, hell, she was getting what _her_ heart desired here, and damned would her...no, _their_ mothers be if they tried to thwart her.

Tammy, the blessed soul she was, wasn’t even surprised. She just smiled- she had the kind of half-smile that reminded Lexie of her mum, and moved closer to Lexie.

And what happened next could only be described as a force finally allowed to burst free.

Scene Change

An exasperated snuffle. “Okay, okay.” Logic sighed. “You win, Love. You win this time. But let’s see how you’ll deal with the blowout.”

Lyra watched this connection with a calm attitude, Lambency stood upon them like the golem she was, and Love…Love just smiled.

Scene Change

Lexie was not sure if one’s first kiss was supposed to taste so bittersweet. Her own hair fell over Tamara’s cheeks, and she held onto her shoulder so that she would not fall over forwards. It felt like everything she had been looking for all rolled into one, a sensation she hadn’t been missing from her life so far only by grace of not knowing how enthralling a kiss was.

She wouldn’t have broken the kiss if not for the fact that she was getting cold, being outside, and she was starting to worry that her mothers would starting coming looking for her. That, in itself, popped the bubble of blissful feelings that hat gathered within Lexie’s stomach, and made her flinch.

“We can’t tell them…” She whispered , suddenly feeling as if she had committed a heinous crime. And while she certainly had, today, -property damage was no joke, it was not this act of rebellion she was worried about.

Tammy sat at her side, silent. “I know.” She finally answered with something like regret. “I know.”

Lexie felt the knot in her stomach tighten even more. While she was sure this development would upset her mothers quite well, she could not even begin to imagine how poor Tammy would fare, once their new feelings for each other became public knowledge.Tamara’s mother had punished her for something as simply as befriending Lexie, and now that they were connected on an even deeper level, what awaited Tammy in her cavern of a home? This was not what she wanted her friend to go through. “I won’t tell them. I will tell no one. Until we can sort this out like...adults, I guess.” The psychic girl whispered, burying her fingers deep into the earth beneath them, feeling the dirty moisture beneath her fingernails.

Tammy did not answer her, but nodded in silence.

“I’ll not leave you alone, Tammy. I’m not going to abandon you. This is going to be alright. You’ve been my best friend and now…” She moved over to Tammy again and cupped her face in her hands. Tammy, who was taller and older than her, and, yet, at this moment, looked just as much like a confused child as she herself probably did. “And now you’re my girlfriend, and it’s going to be okay, right?”

Tammy half-sniffed, half-laughed, and still somehow managed to nod in-between her own confusion. “Do you think this is gonna affect, you know…?”

“Hm?”

“The band, I mean.”

Lexie found herself chuckling as well. “I do not think so. I mean, Mary and Ricky are dating as well, and you don’t see him alternating between beating her over the head with his bass and fucking her on stage, do you?”

Tammy’s laughter sounded weird, being mixed with having to blow her nose and spitting out snot. “I hope you don’t take after your mom in that regard…”

That caused Lexie to have a hard time keeping herself from snorting with laughter. “I _definitely_ hope not!” She slowly stood up, brushing off dirt and grass from her dress. All the time she had taken today to prepare herself and it was all for the naught. But then, she supposed the dumbass Pierre did not deserve to see her all dolled up. “As long as _you_ don’t take after your mom, either, and decide to beat loose now that I’ve confessed to you.”

Tammy’s answer was as sharp as it was bitter, laced with a whole childhood of letdowns and abandonment. “No. Not in a million years do I want to do the same fucking shit she did. I don’t even want to come close to it.”

As they half-walked, half-teleported home, Lexie couldn’t help but wonder if she, in some regard, hadn’t taken exactly after her mothers. After wishing for a drama-free relationship, an illusion born from the experience she had inevitable shared with her mothers, she had gone out of her way to find possible the most distraughting one.

Scene Change

“You are kidding me! You have to be kidding me! Mary, tell me she’s kidding us!”

Mary-Ann rolled her eyes. “She’s not, Ricky. I have seen the letter, and you have seen it, too, seeing as how she has been waving it in front of our faces for the past seven minutes, and unless you’ve gone spontaneously blind, which would explain why you’ve forgotten your shirt _again_ , you have to have seen it.”

Lexie chuckled. “Indeed, Mary, indeed.” She had done this a dozen times before, but she still could not stop presenting the letter from the festival organization to the whole band like a long lost map to the secret pirate’s treasure. “We got invited to a _real_ concert. A serious one. Opening band, that’s, to quote Jay, rad. We won’t get much time to present ourselves- sorry, regulations, nothing I could do about that, but _this is our chance_. There will be more people- they expect up to one-thousand, I tell you, this is amazing! And they won’t just be from our school, these will be people of all ages, of all classes, everyone might be there, not just your parents and siblings and grandparents and godparents. There will be strangers who won’t hesitate to boo if you mess up one chord, guys.”

Javier nodded gravely with the seriousness born from the fact that he was the oldest and felt he should at least try to emit an aura of adulthood, only hindered by the giant smiley face with joint hanging from the edge of its mouth on his shirt. “I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into there, Lexie. There’s the chance they could have invited us just because...” He shrugged. “Well, you know, because of who our parents are.”

The psychic smirked with malicious intention. “The better, then! Then we can prove to them that we are not carbon copies of our parent’s old band! That we do our own thing, have our own style!” She winked, and shouldered her violin for emphasis. “This is our chance to relieve ourselves of our heritage...not fully, but well enough that people out there know us for what _we are_ , not for where we come from.” She glanced at Tammy, and, in the spur of the moment, took her girlfriend’s hand. “And, by Arceus, we will rock their souls so hard they will _never_ , ever even _dare_ to forget who we are.”

Scene Change

“Are you sure it was the right thing?”

Lexie stared into the sky, laying on her back on the roof of the school. She groaned,rubbed her sleepy eyes and rolled onto her stomach, almost smothering Tammy in the process. “No…” She whimpered, face buried in her hair and her hands. “I do not know if it was the right thing. I feel as if we did not have enough time to practice, I feel as if my singing is still not good enough, I feel as if I still cannot motivate everyone well enough, I feel like the worst band leader to have ever dared to set foot onto a stage and…” She paused, taking the time to brush her forehead against Tamara’s shoulder, feeling the metallic accessories riveted into the material coldly press into her skin, leaving their marks there just like Tamara herself had. “And worst...I am not sure if it was right to invite my mothers.” She began kneading her fingers, feet kicking the sandy tar paper beneath her. “Oh, Tammy, you don’t even know...I think my mom just totally lost her shit when I said I play in a band. I think she just…” Lexie shrugged. “I have seen her crazy quite a few times. Really, frenzy like crazy. Drunk crazy. So crazy you think she belongs into the nuthouse. Totally out of this universe crazy. That kind of crazy. But today, she just about went bananas. She went beyond all and every boundary I’ve ever seen, and I have lived with her my whole fucking life. She looked like she was about to do cartwheels. I didn’t even know she knew how to do cartwheels.” Lexie shook her head, the images in there doing similar stunts. “I have no idea how mum calmed her down. Maybe they threw themselves into the sheets and are currently going at it like wild Pokemon again.” She shuddered fiercely, happy that she wasn’t at home. “Or maybe she still is hollering her head off. It was almost frightening to see her that thrilled.” Lexie shivered. “And that’s...I guess that’s the problem. I really, really, really don’t want to disappoint her. To shock her. I do not want to get off the stage and have her spit into my face what kind of disgrace I am to her music legacy.” She bit her lip. She was 99% sure this was not going to happen, not with her mom, but all these irrational fears took over her mind, now that the immaterial clock of count-down showed less than twenty-four hours till her pivotal concert..

Tammy sighed. “Lexie, you will do good. I am absolutely sure of that you’ll do your best. I have never heard you sing so well, and I’m…” She paused, obviously trying hard to smile for Lexie’s sake. “I’m impressed.” She paused again. “And, to be honest, I think our duett will fit in just well.”

Lexie had trouble stopping her blush as Tammy’s mohawk brushed against her shoulder. That was another thing she was dreading in a good way. She was going to sing together with Tammy. Tammy had a deeper voice, if she had to guess, she would put her at a deep mezzosopran, if not even outright alto. Either way, it was a nice voice to listen to.

“I know, and I’m really looking forward to it, it’s just…” She groaned, once again switching positions so that she was on her back, left arm draped across Tammy’s back. “I’m so fucking nervous…”

Tammy seemed to laugh, but it was hard to tell for Lexie, given that she was staring into space. All she felt was the movement beneath her arm. “Who wouldn’t, Lex, before an event such as this?”

The younger girl did not answer, prompting Tammy to sit up and lay her head in her lap. Lexie didn’t protest, seeing as how she couldn’t even find the strength in her to move her upper body on her own. “You know...there may be a way I can help you with your anxiety.”

Lexie still couldn’t and didn’t even bother shifting, instead, she just glanced aside. “It’s not drugs, is it? I swear, if you plan on drugging me up, Tammy, then you better hurry and write down your epitaph, because both of my mothers will murder you if you so much as try to cook up something illegal.” Lexie paused. “Hell, I can’t even guarantee that it would be my mum who would make your brain boil over short and painlessly…this one time, I’m pretty sure my mom would actually be the one chasing you through town and to hell, before slicing through your throat with sewing treat, or impale your through your asshole with a scorching hot crowbar. Skin you with nail clippers. Or worse. She can get pretty creative in that regard…”

Tammy laughed. She really, actually laughed, and Lexie felt warmness rise in her cheeks at that sound. “No, that’s not what I had in mind, but... “ She came closer, until Lexie was sure that she could feel her breath on her cheek, unnatural warm air at this time of the year. “...I’m afraid if your mothers found out what I’m about to do to you, they would make my life hell, either way, for tainting their pretty little baby girl.”

By now, her fingers were brushing against Lexie’s neck, slowly slipping downwards to the string holders of her dress, and underneath them. Lexie wouldn’t have stopped her even if she wanted to.

Scene Change

“The party won’t start till I’ve walked in!”

There was groaning all around the newcomer, and Logic would have thrown in the towel if that hadn’t become pointless by now.

“Wonderful, now it’s Lust! What’s next, Lunacy?”

The newcomer grinned. “No worries, I got this. You forget, Logic, dear...I may not have the experience, but I have the perfect background…”

Love glanced a bit, even if she was sure that cooperating with the new Facet would be easy for her, while Lyra just shrugged, unfazed at all.

It was Lambency who moved, glaring at Lust and what it held in tow.

Scene Change

“For someone who’s a verifiable virgin, I have to say...you’re damn good at this!”

“Virgin in all but theory, Tammy...hearing my mothers screwing each other every night gave me enough second-hand know-how to practically count as defloration…”

Scene Change

They would have slept in if not for Lexie’s supernatural sense of time and the fact that it was still bitter cold outside, no matter how many blankets one stole from the school beneath. From there on, they moved like on remote control, gathering their gears and their band members and their courage, until they felt they were as ready as they could now.

Scene Change

Lexie saw no need to start slow. She saw no need to start with a heavy, or hell, even a sad song when they were the opener, and they were supposed to serve as the pregame to the real big show.

Should they just wait. A few years, and they would be the ones everyone would be burning for.

She didn’t look for her mothers in the crowd. It did not make much sense to her, given that everyone looked like a little dot from her position, and if she tried to focus on anything other than the music, she was sure she would faint. Especially if she tried to consciously think of the consequences. She was sure her nervousness would take over then, and nothing Tammy could do would ease it off her, then.

Not that their little action yesterday hadn’t helped…

_So honey hold my hand you like making me wait for it_  
_I feel I could die walking up to the room, oh yeah_

Yes, she really felt like she could die, but it was a feeling soon ebbing away. She felt the beat of Javier’s drums in her veins, and Mary-Ann having that cheeky smile as she basically threw herself into the keyboard, and she tried, she really tried, not to look at Tammy, but she felt as if, from time to time, she did stole a glance at her girlfriend. Just to make sure that she was real, and this moment was real, and she wasn’t just keeping on dreaming.

_It's way too soon, I know this isn't love_  
_But I need to tell you something_

Was it really too soon to be love? Lexie felt as if this was a rhetorical question. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. It wasn’t as if she gave a damn, really.

_I really really really really really really like you_  
_And I want you, do you want me, do you want me, too?_

The first time she had ever written down the lyrics, Mary-Ann had, plainly, said she would never be able to get away with so many repetitions of a single word. And had then proceeded to count them every time Lexie sang, just to make sure it stayed the same amount of words. Lexie still had to suppress a chuckle when she remembered May-Ann with her fingers, bending one after the other after every word.

_Oh, did I say too much?_

She was fairly sure that, of now, the answer was ‘no’. The song was a love song just like every single other love song in the world, and even her mothers could not interpret too much into it. Maybe her mum knew. Maybe she already knew. Heck, it was likely that she already knew, but Lexie felt confident in trusting her with this knowledge.  


  
_Yeah we could stay alone, you and me, and this temptation_  
_Sipping on your lips, hanging on by thread, baby_

Oh hell yeah, the temptation was for real, that much was true. The temptation to just slip out of voice, out of song, out of performance, to side-step it all and just hold onto her face for a moment longer, to get it into her unbelieving head that all of this was real, and that the people singing along with her, even though they could not know the refrain yet- although, in all honesty, it was easy to remember, that they were really there as well, and that they were cheering for them, and that they _liked_ what they were hearing. Lexie was not sure if she should believe all of that, even though she was standing in the middle of it, like the rock caught in breakwater.  


  
_I don't know how to act_  
_or if I should be leaving_  
_I'm running out of time_  
_Going out of my mind  
_ _I need to tell you something  
_ _Yeah, I need to tell you something_

Lexie found that she had developed the habit of doing- no, _improvising_ things in the middle of performances that, with poisonous precision, confused the heck out of her fellow band members. Most often, she did it just for a joke, and no one was really mad at her at the end of it. They all got a good laugh out of it, and they were okay with it, and that’s what counted, right? Many, many times she had said the most hilarious things when it came to this moment, telling her fellow band members everything that came to her mind, from a pizza delivery to the apocalypse onto them to the fact that they were all figments of a greater being’s imagination. It had always been anything but serious.

She had not planned to gaze into Tammy’s eyes as she said this. She had not planned to slow down so much that her voice was basically the only thing left to hear,enhanced by her head-on mic, though. She had certainly not planned for this to go this way, but…

“I’m pregnant.”

“Oh...kay…”

“Just kidding.”

What she had not planned for, either, was Tammy taking her serious.

The guitarist paused, for earnest, here, and stared Lexie straight into the eyes, obviously not that aware of the fact that their mics were on, after all.

“Fuck, you almost got me there, given what happened last night and how you came to be, after all…”

Lexie had not planned for herself to blush and fight off a laughing fit after this, but what really took the cake, was the fact that this moment, she managed to get a miniscule glimpse at her mothers, and she was pretty sure both were going through various states of fainting.

“I think you just killed my mothers…”

It was then that Javier brought it to their attention that they still had a song to finish, and they gladly took it upon themselves to fall into beat again, and to finish the song, together.

They did not hear the applause. They didn’t hear the laughter of cheering or their band members either. They just looked at each other at the end of the song, caught in euphoria.

“I still need to tell you something…” Lexie whispered, nearly out of breath.

And Tammy answered in a way that Lexie expected to have been heard a dozen times by her mom, uttered by her mum.

“I know.”


End file.
